Think Outside, maker of the Stowaway Portable Keyboards for handheld devices, introduced the Stowaway Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard, a new Bluetooth-enabled keyboard for use with compatible PDAs and smartphones. This full-sized, portable folding keyboard is based on a reference design capable of being modified to meet an OEM's specifications. The Stowaway Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard allows smartphone and PDA manufacturers to speed their time to market offering high quality, unique Bluetooth keyboard products in early Q2 2004.

"We are offering the Stowaway Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard as a direct response to a number of important trends, notably Europe's rapid embracing of Bluetooth technology and the growing popularity of smartphones, which represent a new category that combines 'super' cell phones with next-generation PDAs," said Greg van den Dries, vice president of sales and marketing for Think Outside.

"People with Bluetooth-enabled smartphones and PDAs currently lack a full-size keyboard option that takes advantage of this built-in wireless technology, and yet serious text input is precisely the kind of activity that these mobile users want for e-mail or office productivity applications. By making the Stowaway Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard available to smartphone and PDA manufacturers, Think Outside is enabling OEM's to provide exciting and valuable solutions to their customers' needs," he said.

The Stowaway Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard is based on the Bluetooth Spec 1.1, HID 1.0a and is the first portable keyboard specifically designed for Bluetooth-enabled smartphones and PDAs. This same Stowaway keyboard can work with essentially any smartphone, PDA or cell phone that has the Bluetooth HID (human interface device) profile in its software stack. This broad compatibility is important for many people who use one or more of these devices and want only one keyboard to work across all of them.

Samples of the Stowaway Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard are available for OEMs who currently offer smartphones and PDAs. At the same time, the current keyboard design can be modified so that OEMs can quickly bring to market customized keyboard products that address their mobile computing and wireless communications markets. Think Outside will provide smartphone manufacturers with a package that includes the keyboard design and software for evaluation purposes.